Hi guys,

I just wanted to see what you guys think of a hone flattening method I've been using for a while now.
It's kind of the "poor boy's" method I think, because my wife would kill me if I spent a lot of money on the "nice" stuff!

Materials and Cost

12" x 5" x 1/4" piece of glass - it was a free scrap!
1 sheet 220 grit sandpaper - $1.29
1 sheet 600 grit sandpaper - $1.29
1 sheet 1000 grit sandpaper - $0.89
Norton Hone Flattening stone - $20 (I can't remember)

First I flatten out the hone flattener, per Norton instructions with the 220 on the glass plate.

Then I draw my grids on the Norton 4K/8K and my chinese 12K and rub them off with the Norton flattener.

This seems to leave a rough surface so I redraw the grids and put the 600 on the glass and rub off the grids on all three stones again.

I call the 4K/8K done at that point, and I redraw a grid on the 12K and rub off that one with 1000 grit on the glass plate.

I find that once I have the grids rubbed off, all of the stone makes a heck of a vacuum and I have trouble getting the stones to separate from the sandpaper and glass, so I'm guessing that means we have some sort of flatness going on.

I just wanted to see what you guys thought and maybe you all have some tricks that I could use to improve my method without spending a bunch of money.

Thank You all for supporting my hobby!!!